|
|
Sold Out
Book Categories |
Hailed by Newsweek as "a superb and humane social critic" with, according to The Wall Street Journal, "all the true instincts of a major novelist," Jay McInerney unveils a story of love, family, conflicting desires, and catastrophic loss in his most powerfully searing work thus far.
Clinging to a semiprecarious existence in TriBeCa, Corrine and Russell Calloway have survived a separation and are thoroughly wonderstruck by young twins whose provenance is nothing less than miraculous, even as they contend with the faded promise of a marriage tinged with suspicion and deceit. Meanwhile, several miles uptown and perched near the top of the Upper East Side's social register, Luke McGavock has postponed his accumulation of wealth in an attempt to recover the sense of purpose now lacking in a life that often gives him pause—especially with regard to his teenage daughter, whose wanton extravagance bears a horrifying resemblance to her mother's. But on a September morning, brightness falls horribly from the sky, and people worlds apart suddenly find themselves working side by side at the devastated site, feeling lost anywhere else, yet battered still by memory and regret, by fresh disappointment and unimaginable shock. What happens, or should happen, when life stops us in our tracks, or our own choices do? What if both secrets and secret needs, long guarded steadfastly, are finally revealed? What is the good life?
Posed with astonishing understanding and compassion, these questions power a novel rich with characters and events, both comic and harrowing, revelatory about not only New York after the attacks but also the toll taken on those lucky enough to have survived them. Wise, surprising, and, ultimately, heart-stoppingly redemptive, The Good Life captures lives that allow us to see–through personal, social, and moral complexity–more clearly into the heart of things.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Kesha Skaggs
reviewed The Good Life on February 02, 2015
The Good Life
Like his obvious influence, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay McInerney has always been an astute social chronicler. His previous novels, one about the coke-filled club scene of the early 80s, for example, and another about the post-boom stock market mini-crash, seem almost trivial next to the loaded setting of The Good Life: the day before and the months after September 11, 2001.
The story centres on two contrasting couples, familiar from some of McInerney's earlier fiction. Gracefully aging hipsters Corrine and Russell Calloway are raising their twin kids in TriBeCa, while socialites Luke and Sasha McGavock barely see their troubled teenager daughter in their Upper East Side co-op.
When Corrine and Luke, who have both taken themselves out of the rat race to pursue more meaningful work, meet in the debris-filled aftermath of the attacks and consequently start working in a relief-effort soup kitchen, they find an emotional bond that's lacking at home. What to do?
Like John Cheever, quoted in one of the book's epigraphs, McInerney dissects encroaching middle age and marital infidelity with special care. He brings a whiff of glamour to adultery, but he knows that it exacts a price. His people have made choices and, when faced with catastrophe, must examine whether they're the right ones.
Written in lyrical, almost elegiac prose, the book begins well, covers the WTC disasters with understated tact and also delivers some rich satire about Manhattan's pretty people. The denouement is exquisite.
But there's something missing at the book's heart. McInerney is a good satirist, but I'm not sure he's a fine portraitist. We know where his characters went to school, what they wear and who they know, but they never jump off the page. This is fine for a pop novel like Bright Lights, Big City, but here he's trying for something more and doesn't quite succeed.
Originally published in NOW Magazine:
Login|Complaints|Blog|Games|Digital Media|Souls|Obituary|Contact Us|FAQ
CAN'T FIND WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR? CLICK HERE!!! X
You must be logged in to add to WishlistX
This item is in your Wish List
X
This item is in your Collection
The Good Life
X
This Item is in Your Inventory
The Good Life
X
You must be logged in to review the productsX
X
X
Add The Good Life, Hailed by Newsweek as a superb and humane social critic with, according to The Wall Street Journal, all the true instincts of a major novelist, Jay McInerney unveils a story of love, family, conflicting desires, and catastrophic loss in , The Good Life to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
X
Add The Good Life, Hailed by Newsweek as a superb and humane social critic with, according to The Wall Street Journal, all the true instincts of a major novelist, Jay McInerney unveils a story of love, family, conflicting desires, and catastrophic loss in , The Good Life to your collection on WonderClub |
